Jack Cheng

An economics paper co-authored by a University of South Carolina Upstate faculty member has won attention in England, and could influence thinking about the effect of mortgage spreads on the economy.

Jack Cheng, an assistant professor of economics at the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics, said “mortgage spread” refers to the difference between the mortgage interest rate and the interest rate for government treasury bonds.

The spread reflects “the risk premium and other factors that are related to the mortgage market,” Cheng explained.

Cheng and the Bank of England’s Ching-Wai “Jeremy” Chiu co-authored the Bank of England Staff Working Paper No. 634: Nonlinearities of Mortgage Spreads Over the Business Cycle, which was then featured in an article on the Central Banking website.

In their research, the authors demonstrated that unexpected changes in the mortgage spread have a greater effect on the economy during times of recession than during expansion.

“The paper has vital policy implications,” Cheng said. “It’s saying that by influencing mortgage spreads … the Mortgage Backed Security Purchase Program (implemented by the Federal Reserve in 2009) would likely have a greater impact on the economy when the economy is in a recession.”

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website, the program “was intended to provide support to mortgage lending and housing markets and to foster improved conditions in financial markets more generally.”

With publication by Central Banking, Cheng said the research is being recognized for its importance.

“It means that the research is important, and I hope that the results from this study will provide important insights to policy makers and help them implement appropriate policies when dealing with future crises,” Cheng said.

Kim Buckner Land (USC ’98, MBA ’02), instructor of marketing at the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics at the University of South Carolina Upstate, was awarded the 2016 Distinguished Young Alumna by Darla Moore School of Business at the 32^nd annual Business Leadership Dinner and Awards Ceremony on April 19.

“I am proud to say that one of the Johnson College of Business and Economics faculty members, Kim Land, is recognized as one of four 2016 Distinguished Alumni of USC this year,” said Frank Rudisill, dean of the Johnson College. “This is quite an honor for Kim and we are very proud of her.”

Land is an accomplished marketing professional with a unique skill set and proven track record in leading people and organizations through process change, branding initiatives, new product launches, research projects and successful multi-media sales efforts.

Land graduated in 1998 with an undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina Honors College. While at Carolina, she was a leader on campus, serving as president of Delta Zeta sorority. She was awarded the USC Outstanding Senior Award. She then completed her MBA at the Darla Moore School of Business with a 4.0 GPA.

For 15 years, Land served as marketing director for a group of New York Times newspapers in the North and South Carolina markets, including her home paper, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. In August 2015, she began putting her experience in the marketing field to work in the classroom as a full-time instructor at the Johnson College of Business and Economics at USC Upstate.

Outside of the office, Land is dedicated to serving the community where she was born and raised. She has volunteered her time with numerous non-profit boards over the years including the Junior League of Spartanburg, Goodfellows and Healthy Smiles of Spartanburg. Land is currently the Board Chair for SAFE Homes/Rape Crisis Coalition as well as serving on the boards for the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, Oakbrook Preparatory School and Quality Counts – Spartanburg County First Steps. She also chairs a United Way Investment Council committee to allocate donor dollars within the education classification.

In addition, Land recently organized the 12^th Annual Upstate Regional Spelling Bee where more than 80 students from Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union Counties gathered at USC Upstate to compete for the title of Regional Spelling Bee Champion and the opportunity to represent the Upstate of South Carolina in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

Land has been recognized for her professional accomplishments over the years, being named a Direct Marketing News “40 Under 40” recipient in 2014 and a Presstime Magazine “20 Under 40” recipient in 2006. She has also received many South Carolina Press Association awards over the years, as well as numerous awards for board service.

Land lives in Inman with her husband, Jason and her 7-year-old daughter, Kelsey.

Three University of South Carolina Upstate faculty members were honored on May 5 at the commencement ceremony when 832 students received their degrees.

The USC Upstate Excellence in Teaching and Advising Award recognizes sustained excellence in undergraduate instruction and academic advisement. Students may nominate faculty members who teach six or more credit hours during the semester prior to when the award is given and are permanent track faculty members.

Dr. Lisa Johnson, director of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, and Jeff Smith, instructor of management, are the 2015 recipients of the USC Upstate Excellence in Teaching and Advising Awards.

Johnson, who joined the faculty in 2006, has developed programs on campus and in the community to introduce the field of Women’s and Gender Studies as an exciting set of critical thinking skills about gender and power in personal relationships, politics, workplaces, educational settings and media culture.

“Dr. Johnson consistently delivers high-quality performance in the classroom and continuously refines her teaching skills, including participation in the Title III Active Learning Fellowship this spring. She has developed several innovative courses for the Women’s and Gender Studies minor, such as Girls Studies and Feminist Disability Studies. Students value her expertise and mentorship on undergraduate research projects and applications to graduate school,” said Dr. Dirk Schlingmann, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Foregrounding independent research and academic writing skills, Johnson has supervised 17 student conference presentations at local and regional gender studies conferences since 2006. She was also selected as the 2015 recipient of the system-wide USC Women’s and Gender Studies teaching award based on her commitment to integrated learning and civic engagement. She founded the first Triota Women’s and Gender Studies honors chapter in the USC system in 2013 and has inducted seven members in the past two years.

Smith has been teaching classes in entrepreneurship, finance and accounting at the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics since 2008. In addition, he has 20 years of experience in the accounting, banking and the real estate development sectors, and has owned and operated several small businesses.

“Being an effective teacher, advisor, mentor and motivator requires one to think outside the box of conventional pedagogy; to go beyond the norms of typical classroom engagement; and to strive for excellence from students, the institution, the college and themselves,” said Dr. Frank Rudisill, dean of the Johnson College of Business and Economics. “Jeff Smith is this type of teacher. He is always outside the box, continually searching for better ways to educate and prepare students to be effective in the business world and constantly asking “are we teaching what our students need to know?”

Smith teaches the New Business Enterprise class where students learn the key steps in how to start a new business and develop plans for potential businesses. Since 2008, at least 15 businesses have been established from plans developed in his class. To date, these businesses have sales that exceed $60 million annually and employ more than 500 people.

The Annual Award for Faculty Excellence in Scholarly and/or Creative Pursuits recognizes an individual who has distinguished himself or herself by scholarly or creative activities during the preceding year. Faculty members are invited to submit their research and/or creative activities to be considered for the award.

Dr. Andrew Beer, associate professor of psychology, is the 2015 recipients of the Annual Award for Faculty Excellence in Scholarly and/or Creative Pursuits. By developing new research methods and applying them to fundamental questions about the ways we understand the personality traits of others, Beer has earned an international reputation as a leading scholar and researcher in the field of personality psychology. In the past three years, he has published five articles in top journals and been invited to give addresses to national and international audiences at Wake Forest University and at the European Conference on Personality Psychology in Italy. He has been honored with a position as consulting editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the most prestigious journal in the field, where he influences the direction of the field by reviewing manuscripts by contributors worldwide.

“Through this research, Dr. Beer is changing understandings of the impressions we make of others and ourselves—in marriages, interviews, social situations, and the wide range of personal encounters that shape our lives,” said Dr. Celena E. Kusch, co-chair of the Committee for Faculty Excellence.

At the most basic level, Beer asks how people know and judge others based on first impressions. His research explores how we determine the openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, loyalty, and other traits of strangers from just a brief encounter, a photo, a video, or even a description. His work has also concluded that we make those determinations more accurately when consulting together in pairs or small groups, but that our individual judgments are just as effective as those we make in groups of five or more.

“We are tremendously proud of the accomplishments our faculty members make in their important roles as scholars, researchers, artists, experts, and leaders in their fields,” said Chancellor Tom Moore. “Their contributions both in and out of the classrooms are what makes this a great University.”

Ten faculty members at the University of South Carolina Upstate have been awarded Summer Faculty Innovation Grants thanks to a new initiative funded by the USC Upstate Foundation. Grants of up to $5,000 were available for curriculum innovations that might include interdisciplinary and cross-divisional courses and programs, new service learning models, innovative instructional concepts, and responses to discovered educational needs across the Upstate.

“This was a very competitive process, with 20 very strong applications submitted for the 10 grants,” said Dr. Clif Flynn, associate vice chancellor for faculty development and director of graduate studies. “The selected proposals represent a range of exciting innovations that have great potential for positively impacting teaching and learning at USC Upstate. I want to thank all who applied, the faculty members who served on the selection committee, and Chancellor Moore and the USC Upstate Foundation for making these grants possible.”

Selected to receive the inaugural Summer Faculty Innovation Grants are:

• Lola Bradley, reference librarian, and Bree Kirsch, reference librarian: “Turning LIBR 201 into a Hybrid Course Using a Flipped Classroom Model and Incorporating Service-Learning”

• Chase DeHan, assistant professor of economics: “Developing a Flipped Classroom for Finance 363”

• Samantha Hauptman, assistant professor of criminal justice, and Lynn McMillan, instructor of child advocacy: “Childhood Trauma: Potential Pathway to the Criminal Justice System”(interdisciplinary course)

• David Marlow, associate professor of linguistics: “International ESOL Service-Learning for Diversity and Understanding”

• Tish Oney, assistant professor of music: “New Course Development: Music of Black Americans”

• Allison Pingley, assistant professor of political science: “Developing Political Behavior course as Service-Learning Course”

• Araceli Hernandez-Laroche, assistant professor of French, and Samantha Hauptman, assistant professor of criminal justice: ”The Twin Ills of Terrorism and Torture: A Global Perspective” (interdisciplinary course)
• Tom Rogers, assistant professor of engineering technology management: “Creating a Fully Asynchronous Lab for EMTG 320L: Engineering Cost Analysis Lab”

• Sharon T. Smith, instructor of nursing: “Integrating Second Life into the Childbearing and Women’s Health Curriculum”

• Rachel Snow, associate professor of art history: Spartanburg Art Museum Service-Learning Seminar”

“The Foundation Board is delighted to establish $50,000 in Faculty Innovation Grant Funds to support curriculum innovation by University faculty,” said Steve Harvey ’80, president of the USC Upstate Foundation. “These grants will allow faculty members to increase their engagement in experimentation and collaboration designing more engaging and effective learning experiences for students. Ultimately, it will be our students who benefit from the teaching advances made possible by the cutting-edge efforts of the faculty.”

Prospective business students wishing to transfer to the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics at USC Upstate will find a new resource with the hiring of Sarah C. Butler as the transfer advisor and student services coordinator.

Butler provides an array of services to transfer students, current students enrolled at the USC Upstate Greenville Campus, and prospective transfer students from community colleges. She assists with comprehensive programs and initiatives promoting student success, provides career guidance, oversees transfer orientation, and provides course advisement to transfer students.

“The greatest impact I hope to make with each student is for them to feel that they have been treated with the highest quality of respect and care,” said Butler. “That’s been my priority for the past six years and it hasn’t failed me yet.”

Butler will maintain office hours at The George and at the Greenville Campus. She can be reached at sbutler@uscupstate.edu or 503-5525 (Spartanburg) or 552-4231 (Greenville).

Be sure to check out USC Upstate professor Rosalind Corieri Paige’s latest column in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

Paige writes a column each month for the local business section.

Read about why, “Consumers Want to Be Dazzled.”

Paige is an associate professor of marketing at USC Upstate’s George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics.

Dr. Roz C. Paige is a culinary enthusiast and lover of life and beauty.

In her blog, “La Bella Vita Cucina,” she shares recipes and stories of her Italian-American life.

Go behind the scenes with us as she gives us insight into the source of her inspiration.

Read Upstate magazine.

Jeff Smith, an instructor in the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics, published an article in Forbes magazine on Sept. 4, 2014 titled, “Aligning Athletics Within Academic Missions in Division 1.”

 Read the article here.

Dr. Charles Harrington, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and professor of management in the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics, will have an article, Customer Relationship Management and Intercollegiate Athletics:  Opportunities and Benefits for Smaller Institutions, published in the Spring 2014 volume of the Journal of Management and Organizational Studies.

Nicholas Roberts (assistant professor of management, George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics) and colleagues Mark Mellott and Jason Thatcher had their article “Electronic Medical Record Compliance and Continuity in Delivery of Care: An Empirical Investigation in a Combat Environment” accepted for publication in Health Systems, a Palgrave-Macmillan journal sponsored by the Operational Research (OR) Society. This research was supported by a grant from the USC Upstate Office of Sponsored Awards and Research Support.

The article abstract:
Electronic medical records (EMR) are central to continuity in delivery of care in a combat environment.  Yet despite their benefits, technological advances, and legislation mandating their use, EMRs are not widely diffused in the U.S. military.  Several contextual factors, such as armed conflict, multiple layers of bureaucracy, inconsistent rotation schedules, and competing goals, contribute to the complexity and difficulty of EMR implementation in a combat environment.  This study applies a principal-agent perspective to understand barriers to EMR policy compliance in the U.S. military.  Using a unique data set collected over a 105-week period, we investigate the implementation and effect of monitoring and sanctions on EMR compliance in combat support hospitals.  Our results show that monitoring and sanctions positively impact the rate of EMR completion, yet they have no effect on the rate of EMRs started.  Our results have implications for research and policy on EMR compliance and implementation in vertically integrated healthcare systems.